Movies

Three SKE48 members form fictional idol trio for daytime drama

Three members from idol group SKE48 are going to form a fictional idol trio for their cameo in Fuji TV's noon drama, "Asu no Hikari wo Tsukame 2".

The fictional trio is called 'Pichitomato' ('Cherry tomato') and consists of members Kizaki Yuria, Mano Haruka, and Yamada Reika. It will be their first drama appearance on a national network.

Kizaki was overjoyed as she expressed, "It's nice that we three were able to debut together. We are all in senior high school, but we still call ourselves 'Team JK'."

In the drama, the members will play an idol trio who's just made their debut after a rigorous audition process. 'Ishida Yuki' (played by Nishino Mami) always wanted to become an idol, and so she auditioned for the group as well, but unfortunately didn't make the cut. The girls' scenes will include a live performance and a debut handshake event that have already been filmed.

Yamada commented, "I wasn't really nervous, since we are playing idols and just have to act as usual. However, I had to stay focused to keep my Gifu dialect from coming out. I was careful to speak in standard Japanese only."

Mano also mentioned that she was a regular watcher of the drama's first season when it aired last summer, and that she was really happy when she received the offer to appear in its sequel. She said, "I was anxious, since I was acting for the first time, but since we are playing idols, I thought that we should just act as ourselves."

"Asu no Hikari wo Tsukame 2" stars Kojima Fujiko, Watanabe Ikkei, and many others, and airs every weekday at 1:30pm. The episodes with the members of SKE48 will air on July 27th and 28th.